Ketchum said that the company's baby and parental essentials unit, which includes brands Graco, Aprica and Teutonia, will move into headquarters in 2009, bringing 200 jobs to the state.

The company said that another 200 will be added when a 800,000-square-foot distribution center opens in Union City just southeast of Atlanta later this year. The company, which has 22,500 employees globally, will have brought 1,000 jobs to Georgia after moving its headquarters to Atlanta in 2003.

Shares of Newell Rubbermaid fell 30 cents to close at $17.49 Wednesday.

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Newell Rubbermaid Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a global marketer of consumer and commercial products with sales of over $6 billion and a strong portfolio of brands, including Rubbermaid(R), Sharpie(R), Graco(R), Calphalon(R), Irwin(R), Lenox(R), Levolor(R), Paper Mate(R), Dymo(R), Waterman(R), Parker(R), Goody(R), BernzOmatic(R) and Amerock(R). The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., and has approximately 22,500 employees worldwide.

This press release and additional information about Newell Rubbermaid are available on the company's Web site, www.newellrubbermaid.com .

NWL-DI

SOURCE Newell Rubbermaid Inc.

http://www.newellco.com

--Short-Term IDR at 'F2';

--Bank credit facility at 'BBB';

--Senior unsecured notes at 'BBB';

--Commercial paper at 'F2';

--Trust convertible preferred stock (QUIPS) at 'BBB-'.

The rating affirmation reflects: NWL's satisfactory credit metrics following its most recent acquisitions; a diverse product line of brand name consumer products; continued emphasis on the consumer, including product and cost innovation, and on global product development; and reduction of manufacturing overhead and labor costs.

The Outlook revision considers an increase in leverage as a result of two acquisitions completed on April 1, 2008 and forecasted lower earnings and cash flow. Credit metrics are projected to decline by year-end 2008. With expectations that the economy will remain soft into 2009 and cost inflation high, credit measures may remained pressured. In addition, NWL must refinance $448 million of floating rate notes in September 2008, most likely at higher rates. If NWL is unsuccessful in grappling with sustained high commodity costs or if pricing actions lead to a material change in demand, further rating actions may be required.

As a result of a dramatic increase in resin costs, NWL will rationalize its portfolio of consumer products by divesting, downsizing or exiting $500 million in sales of selected product categories. A significant percentage of the rationalization will be focused on the most resin-intensive product categories. NWL also plans to aggressively increase prices in the back half of 2008 and is initiating a new quarterly price adjustment mechanism for its resin-intensive businesses in North America effective Jan. 1, 2009. The adjustment will be based on independent industry raw material indices as well as actual changes in raw material, processing and transportation costs. These quarterly pricing adjustments should lessen the time lag between incurring higher costs and actually receiving higher prices on products.

NWL's Project Acceleration restructuring efforts will be expanded to include a number of actions related to the new initiatives. Restructuring costs associated with these actions, including asset impairments, are expected to fall within a range of $80 million-$100 million ($68 million-$85 million, net of tax). Approximately 45% of the restructuring costs are expected to be cash charges. These actions should be completed within 12 months. Overall, annual savings from Project Acceleration are now projected between $175 million and $200 million once fully implemented by 2010.

NWL's sales were $6.4 billion in 2007, up 3.3%. All business segments had sales increases. Operating profit (before restructuring charges) improved by 14% to $826 million, with solid margin improvement. In the first quarter of 2008, sales improved 3.6% but operating income (before restructuring charges) declined 5.5% largely due to rising raw material costs. For the latest 12 months ended March 31, 2008, leverage and interest coverage, as measured by total debt with equity credit/EBITDA and FFO/interest coverage, were 2.7 times (x) and 5.8x, respectively.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.

SOURCE: Fitch Ratings

Fitch Ratings
Thomas P. Razukas, CFA, 212-908-0223
Grace Barnett, CPA, 212-908-0718 (New York)
Media Relations:
Brian Bertsch, 212-908-0549 (New York)